Sept. 9, 2006

Complete Results

GREAT MEADOWS, Va. - Brendan Fennell's (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) third-place finish Saturday led the American University men's cross country team to a second-place team finish behind rival Georgetown at the Great Meadows Invite.

The Eagles had its top four runners in the lead group during the first-half of the race, but as the pace picked up the leaders strung out the pack. Fennell was able to make a strong move in the last half-mile of the race to pass two runners and move up to third. His finishing time of 21:47 worked out to an average of 5:12 per mile for the 4.2 mile course, which is more impressive considering the race went out in a leisurely 5:25 for the first mile.

Not far behind, seniors Awit Yohannes (Derwood, Md./Magruder), Conor Lanz (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream) and Dan Beardslee (Waban, Mass./Newton South) took the seventh, eighth and ninth spots, respectively. Yohannes finished at 21:58 with Lanz nipping his heels just two seconds back. Beardslee was a bit further back at 22:15. Sophomore Brandon Laks (Solon, Ohio/Solon) was American's fifth finisher and final scorer in 15th at 22:51 with senior Rob Hofmann (Wantagh, N.Y./W.C. Mepham) 10 seconds behind in 16th at 23:03.

The Eagles took second with 42 team points behind Georgetown's 18 and ahead of Maryland's 64.

Both the men's and women's teams will compete next weekend at the Navy Invitational